Sorry for hyjacking, but a few times thyroid problems have been mentioned in guineas. Is this a fairly common thing for them to suffer from, do they tend to be hypo or hyper thyroid. I am always trying to learn for the sake of my own pets, so this would be a good thing to know.
Thanks.
I don't believe thyroid trouble is common by any means, but it does happen and a lot of times I believe the symptoms can be easily be overlooked/attributed to other conditions. As an idea, Lottie's case history turned out to be typical of this.
When I adopted Lottie in 2005, I noticed she had very large eyes. Not so much bulging at that stage, but still very large; they gradually began to bulge as time went on. She also had quite a firm pot belly, and as the next couple of years went by she was losing weight everywhere else, but her abdomen remained this firm shape. (Note she wasn;t actually losing weight, but she became bony while retaining the pot belly) She was always quite a dominant character, and in September 2007 I had to remove her from the main group and pair her up with another neutered male as she became so sexually aggressive to the other sows.
In October 07 I first went to see Vedra with Lottie, and as well as a small urethral stone Lottie was found to have quite significant hair loss on her sides and back, and Vedra was able to feel a small ovarian cyst. Lottie had two injections of HCG, four weeks apart. The hormonal behaviour that I had previously noted quickly eased, and she became a different guinea, very mellow and sweet natured.
However, the hair loss had still not corrected after a few months, so I took her back to Vedra in February 2008 and she could not feel a cyst, but gave another two injections of HCG (again, four weeks apart).
Her hair continued to thin slowly, and in August 2008 I did some research and found on Guinea Lynx that hyperthyroid can cause not only this hair loss, but also a distended abdomen and weight loss. Researching on hyperthyroid in humans, I doscovered bulging eyes was a symptom. I went to Vedra armed with this info and she agreed that it seemed she was very likely to have the condition.
Lottie had a urine test and blood test, and the results came back in September 2008 pointing to hyperthyroid. Lottie was started on Neo-Mercazole (carbimazole); the dosage was to be reduced over time and the courses we worked through with Lottie went as follows:
Course 1:-
19th Sept to 9th Oct - one quarter of a tablet every three days
12th Oct to 2nd Nov - one eighth of a tablet every three days
Course 2:-
4th Nov to 26th Dec - one eighth of a tablet every other day
Lottie was also weighed every other day while on the medication.
We never got to continue her treatment, as in mid-December she develoepd an infection on her back leg. We had to take her off the Neo-Mercazole tablets in order to give Rimadyl to help her leg. This condition rendered her unable to walk, she dragged herself around no problem but her overall condition was poor due to the effects of having the hyperthyroid undiagnosed and untreated for what was probably a year or more. Lottie died on 27th December 2008 ...I gave her a cuddle at midnight on 27 Dec, placed her in a comfy spot in her cage and the next morning found she had passed away during the night, I found her in that same place.
